Innovative approaches to preventing

suicide, in particular among aboriginal

and indigenous youth around the world.

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Response
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 One of our community members, Siobhn Reeves Adviser at the

Australian Commonwealth Government requested that we look into

innovative approaches to reducing suicide, in particular amongst
Indigenous youth around the world. She requested that we share our
findings.

1. Category: Community Education, Preventative Screening

Where: Canada
Programme: In response to the ongoing suicide epidemic among the indigenous youth in
Canada, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (the national representational organization for Inuit in
Canada) has been developing a National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy that attempts to
communicate suicide risk factors to Inuit communities throughout northern Canada. You can
take a look at the strategy here.

2. Category: Community Education

Where: Canada
Programme: Regional groups in Saskatchewan have organized a youth suicide prevention rally
and conference called Ignite The Life that aims to bring together indigenous youth by promoting
peer-to-peer exchanges and education about suicide risk. This initiative is aimed principally at
communicating with the youth first and foremost, in order to better understand the perspective
of those afflicted and to give a voice to those who are suffering and at risk. You can find the page
for the conference here.

3. Category: Various
Where: Canada
Programme: Considering Canadas large indigenous population, an overview of Canadas
federal suicide prevention strategieswhich can be viewed heremay also be of interest outside
of the two examples above.

4. Category: Various
Where: Japan
Programme: Recent suicide prevention measures taken in Japan have also proven to be
particularly effective in helping stem their consistently high suicide rates. For instance, the
Japanese government hired an advertising company, Ogilvy, to devise a nationwide campaign to
make suicide less taboo, as well as allying with a non-governmental organization, LifeLink, who
launched an open discussion forum for those with suicidal tendencies. You can read more about
it here.

5. Category: Preventative screening

Where: Japan
Programme: The Japanese government has set a goal to reduce the suicide rate by 30% over
the next decade. They have already started setting up medical centers and hubs to attend to
people at heightened risk for suicide, like mothers soon after childbirth. Read more here.

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6. Category: Community Support, Preventative Screening
Where: USA
Programme: In Minnesota, they are trailing a text-based pre-screening strategy for people who
either are or are at risk of becoming homeless. This strategy grew out of the state-funded
TXT4Life suicide prevention strategy also piloted in Minnesota, both of which use texts to track
and provide social services to those at risk. Here is an article about the Text Homeless pilot
program.

7. Category: Preventative Screening, Restricting access to means

Where: Sweden
Programme: Sweden has recently applied what is called Vision Zero thinking to suicide
prevention by developing a nine-point program that attempts to target groups at risk. By
employing strategies like reducing alcohol consumption in these sorts of groups, as well as
reducing access to means for committing suicide, they hope to reduce suicide rates. However,
this program has met with limited success and plenty of detractors. You can read more about it
here.

If you have any questions about or suggestions for innovative approaches to suicide prevention,
please get in touch either by posting, or by connecting with Siobhn directly on the platform.

If you have any questions or suggestions for us, feel free to reach out to our community manager
Darius Lerup on the platform or by email at darius.lerup@apolitical.co